NOT A COMPLETE NOVICE, BUT STILL SO MUCH TO LEARN

Month: June 2017

I was really looking forward to my visit to the bees this week as I had two hives that were now queen right and the other was hopefully going to have a newly emerged queen. What could possibly go wrong…?

The nuc is doing so well now that it is in a hive so I thought I’d have a look at that first. It appeared a little light on bees – but it was a really sunny morning so thought maybe they were out and about. Plenty of eggs and larvae, so all was looking good until I found this…

No sign of my unclipped marked queen anywhere, but she had obviously only just left considering all the eggs. I went through the rest of the frames to choose the best queen cell to leave – but I found a queen. She looked very small – so possibly a virgin – or just mated. But the mystery is WHERE DID SHE COME FROM??!!? However much people tell me to expect the unexpected, I don’t and I imagine it will all play out like the text books. How on earth had I missed all these tell-tale signs?

I cut out some capped queen cells, destroyed the others and made up an Apidea which G had with him. I left another capped cell above the crown board with the intention of coming back later that day to make up another. And that is what I did.

Making up an Apidea is much easier with two people. I am glad no-one was watching me attempt it on my own. The tricky bit is having shaken the bees into a bowl, you still have the frame in your hand but you also need to lightly spray them with water to contain them. Then you have to be quite quick to scoop up a cup full, empty them into the bottom of the Apidea and close it up again. Perhaps it will become easier with practice. I do hope so.

So on to the next hive. This one is doing well and looked as it should. And at last I have actually seen the queen. I had thought that I would attempt to mark and clip her, but she was a bit lively so will do that another time…. They have already cleaned up the supers that I put back on. I had been thinking of putting one of these supers on to the first hive, but in current circumstances I might not after all.

Onto the new hive. I had left one capped cell a couple of weeks ago and this, according to my calculations, should have hatched the previous weekend. I went straight to the frame (which I had sensibly marked) but I was not expecting to see this. It looks as if another queen has been in and killed her. But what queen? There is no brood at all and no sign of any queen. I cut this out and photographed it at home.

This is a complete mystery as where could another queen have come from? Fortunately I still had a couple of other capped cells from the first hive. The best one was attached to another, so instead of introducing one I , G helped me affix these to a frame. If there is a queen present she will kill them and if not, there will be one soon.

I have no idea what to expect when I go back next week. This nuc, purchased at considerable cost earlier this year, has been a bit disappointing really. Although it has expanded really well its had light nosema, dysentry (better now), wax moth (no sign now), dodgy queen and mystery killer. What next?

Lessons to self: expect the unexpected and, before looking at my bees, read the previous weeks’ notes carefully and take them with me.